Webster Dictionary(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

a North American fish (Clupea vernalis) of the Herring family. It is called also ellwife, ellwhop, branch herring. The name is locally applied to other related species

Origin: [This word is properly aloof, the Indian name of a fish. See Winthrop on the culture of maize in America, Phil Trans. No. 142, p. 1065, and Baddam's Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 131.]

Freebase(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

Alewife

The alewife is a species of fish. There are anadromous and landlocked forms. The landlocked form is also called a sawbelly or mooneye. The front of the body is deep and larger than other fish found in the same waters, and its common name is said to come from comparison with a corpulent female tavernkeeper. In Atlantic Canada it is known as the gaspereau. More locally, in southwestern Nova Scotia, it is called a kiack. In the Southeast US, when sold and used as bait, the fish is often referred to as "LY".
Adult alewives are preferred bait for the spring lobster fishery in Maine. It is also used for human consumption, usually smoked. It is caught using large dip nets to scoop the fish out of shallow, constricted areas on its migratory streams and rivers. It is one of the "typical" North American shads of the subgenus Pomolobus.

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

Alewife

āl′wīf, n. a fish of the same genus as the shad, about a foot in length, common on the east coast of North America. [Said to be a corr. of aloofe, the Indian name of a fish.]